Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!

Sunday Slow Bakers - Week 4 Grappa-soaked Mini Sponge Cakes

Krista came up with an idea that it would be fun to get a group of folks together to bake and blog each week. A group of us on Slow Travel are going to do just that. Each participant selects a recipe from the cookbook and we all work our way through it. Today is the fourth entry in our baking challenge as we continue to work our way through Dolce Italiano by Gina DePalma (who also happens to be a member of the slowtravel community).

This week's selection, Grappa-Soaked Mini Sponge Cakes (pan di spagna con grappa), was selected by Palma. It presented folks with a few challenges - many of us didn't have mini bundt cake pans. Some used a large bundt pan, others muffin tins. Me? I had an mini easter egg bundt tin which I have used once. I was far too concerned about saving money for our upcoming trip to Italy to buy a new pan. I made easter egg grappa soaked mini sponge cakes.

The other challenge was in finding the grappa. Sandi searched in vain but discovered that the Piggly Wiggly in Alabama just did not carry the stuff. I had no trouble finding grappa but it was only available in huge bottles. Funny that I had no trouble shelling out $ 50 bucks for grappa but would not buy new cake pans 10 days prior to leaving for Italy . . . I ended up buying a Mazzetti Grappa di nebbiolo in honour of our upcoming trip to Piemonte. Others used brandy, amaretto, or lemoncello.

I only needed 4 tablespoons of the grappa for the cakes, I am sure that Paul will drink the rest of the stuff. . . .

This is Paul knocking back a third glass of Casa Emma grappa during our tour of the winery back in /06. It was thoughtful of his to drink mine because I was driving, his own because he just can't waste a good drink, and mom's because she was already 'overserved'. I'm not sure that he has recovered from his grappa induced coma though.

Grappa-soaked Mini Sponge Cakes

For the grappa syrup:

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons grappa
1/4 cup water

For the sponge cakes:

2 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
8 large eggs, separated (mine were extra-large so I only used 7)
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon grappa
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray and flour 2 mini bundt pans (or one large bundt pan).

Stir together the ingredients for the grappa syrup in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow the syrup to cool.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a mixing bowl. Set aside.

Place the egg yolks, sugar, and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat at medium speed until they are very light, pale yellow, and doubled in volume (about 3 minutes). Beat in the grappa and vanilla, followed by the melted butter. Transfer this mixture into a large mixing bowl. Fold in the dry ingredients quickly and lightly, using a large rubber spatula, stopping just before they are fully mixed together.

Clean the mixer bowl and whisk attachment and carefully dry. Place the egg whites and salt in the bowl and beat on medium-high speed until foamy and light. Add the cream of tartar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter quickly and lightly.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pans, filling them 3/4 of the way full. Smooth the tops. Bake the cakes for 20 - 25 minutes (note, the time will be longer if you are making one large cake), or until the cakes pull away from the sides of the pans. Allow the cakes to cool for about five minutes in the pans. Carefully remove them to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Gently brush the cakes with grappa syrup, being sure to cover the entire surface of the warm cakes with the syrup. Use all of the syrup. Allow the cakes to cool completely before serving.

Gina suggests serving the cakes with whipped cream (to which you could add a small quantity of the syrup), creme fraiche, or gelato. They could also be garnished with fresh fruit or simply dusted with icing sugar.

We enjoyed our cakes with a bit of gelato. They were amazing! The grappa syrup was delicious, although the grappa flavour isn’t very strong as most of the alcohol does burn off while the syrup is cooking. The little cakes are pretty and make for an attractive presentation. I will definately be making this recipe again (hmmm - I guess I should have sprung for those new pans! *smile*)

You can see how the other slow bakers met this challenge on their blogs . . .

Destination Anywhere
Cooking at the Whistlestop Cafe
Happy Trails for Us; My Reluctant Blog
In and Out of the Garden
Keep Your Feet in the Street
My Place in the Sun 
Palmabella's Passions
Postcards From the Trail 
What I Really Think

Sunday Slow Bakers - Sbrisolona (Italian Crumbly Cake)

Krista came up with an idea that it would be fun to bake and blog each week. And a group of us on Slow Travel are going to do just that. Today is the first entry in our baking challenge. Here's how it works: we pick a cookbook and each week a person on our list picks a recipe from that book. We all bake it sometime during the week and post the results on our blog on Sunday.

The book we're starting with is Dolce Italiano by Gina DePalma and the first recipe was Krista's pick:  Italian Crumbly Cake (sbrisolona) on page 82.

I ordered this book prior to Christmas, having heard rave reviews of it. I was quickly a convert. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Gina, pastry chef at Mario Batalia's famous restaurant Babbo in New York City was none other than stella on the slowtravel message board!

Gina's book is beautiful and a wonderful way to introduce yourself to the intricacies of Italian baking.

Sbrisolona

makes one 10-inch cake, approximately 10 servings

For the cake
1 1/4 cups "00" flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large egg
4 large egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick/4oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the topping
1 1/2 cups sliced blanched almonds
1 large egg white
3 tbsp granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 325F and position a rack in the center. Lightly grease a 10-inch spring form pan* with nonstick cooking spray or butter, dust it with flour, and tap to knock out the excess.

To make the cake: In a medium bowl, whisk together the "00" flour, almond flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon and set aside.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg, egg yolks, and sugar on medium speed until they are thick and pale yellow, about three minutes. On low speed, add the dry ingredients and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract, followed by the melted butter. Switch to medium speed and beat for 30 seconds.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

To make the topping: Put the sliced almonds in a medium bowl. Lightly beat the egg white in a small bowl with a fork until it is foamy and light, then pour half of it over the almonds, stirring to coat them evenly (discard the rest of the egg white). Sprinkle the almonds with the sugar and toss to coat them. Spread the almond topping evenly over the surface of the batter.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, or until it is springy to the touch and golden brown on top and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove the sides and allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack.

To serve, carefully remove the bottom of the spring form pan with an offset spatula and transfer the cake to a serving plate. Any leftover cake can be wrapped in plastic and served the next day.

*I used a 9 inch spring form pan because I didn't have a 10 inch pan.

Glazed Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

Last week I had a craving for something sweet (actually in the interest of full disclosure - I ALWAYS have a craving for something sweet, I just did something about it this time). I looked around at what we had in the house and we decided to make this cake. The original recipe does not call for blueberries, we had wild blueberries in the freezer and love the combination of the flavours so we added some to see how it would turn out.

This cake was very easy to make, taking little effort in the kitchen (which is always a good thing in my books). It would be great with a cup of morning coffee or mixed berries and a scoop of sorbet for dessert. If you want a more intense lemony flavour use a whole teaspoon of lemon extract.

Glazed Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

Cake:
3 tablespoons grated lemon rind (about 2 lemons)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
3 cups all-purpose flour (13 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 to 1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 large eggs
1 cup low-fat buttermilk

Lemon glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon low-fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cake, combine rind and 3 tablespoons juice in a small bowl. Set aside.

Coat a 10-inch Bundt pan with cooking spray; dust with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar.

Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Place butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add remaining 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, rind mixture, and extract, beating until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and 1 cup buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beating at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoons juice, and 1 tablespoon buttermilk in a small bowl, stirring until smooth. Drizzle glaze over warm cake. Garnish with grated lemon rind once glaze is set, if desired.

If you wish to add the blueberries like we did just mix 1 cup of frozen blueberries with the final amount of flour. Add the flour coated berries to the batter, mix, and follow the recipe as above for the baking.

Chocolate Cranberry Torte

a gratuitous self-promotion . . .

One of our photos from Italy has been entered in a photo contest.

Our photo is currently number 12 out of 467 photos.

You can vote by clicking here

Remember a 10 is good!

Feel free to e-mail the link to friends and loved ones!

*smile*

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Last week we had Paul's chief 'gal-pal' Elise, over for dinner. I asked him what he might like for the dessert and he selected this cake. I must admit that it looked impressive on the cover of the December 2003 Bon Appetit magazine. When I looked at the recipe I felt a tad intimidated by the seemingly never-ending gazillion steps!

Always up for a challenge, I persevered and gave it a shot. I am glad that I did.

In the end the cake was relatively easy to make. The flavour was incredible; rich and very chocolately. While the recipe says it will serve 8 - 10 I would suggest that it might be even more as this cake is so rich you would aonly want a small piece.

Sauce

1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons Chambord (black raspberry liqueur)

Torte

1 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1/3 cup Chambord
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
12 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Glaze

1 cup whipping cream
10 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup Chambord

Fresh mint leaves

For sauce:

Bring first 3 ingredients to boil in saucepan over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium; cook until cranberries burst, about 5 minutes. Transfer to processor; puree. Strain puree into bowl; discard seeds. Mix in Chambord. Cover; chill at least 2 hours or overnight (sauce will thicken).

For torte:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F.

Butter and flour 9-inch-diameter springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Stir 3/4 cup cranberries and Chambord in small saucepan over medium heat until liqueur simmers, about 1 minute. Cool to room temperature. Drain cranberries; reserve liqueur and cranberries separately.

Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat, stirring until beginning to bubble at edges.

Remove from heat. Add chocolate; let stand 1 minute. Whisk until chocolate is melted and smooth. Whisk in sugar, then eggs 1 at a time (batter will look grainy). Whisk in reserved liqueur. Add flour and salt; whisk gently until blended. Stir in reserved cranberries; transfer to prepared pan.

Bake torte until top is puffed and cracked and tester inserted into center comes out with moist (not wet) batter attached, about 1 hour.

Cool completely in pan on rack. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; store at room temperature.)

For glaze:

Bring cream to simmer in medium saucepan.

Remove from heat. Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk in Chambord. Let stand until glaze is thick but still pourable, whisking occasionally, about 2 hours.

Line rimmed baking sheet with foil; place cake rack in center.

Cut around torte to loosen; remove pan sides. Place 8-inch-diameter cardboard round or 8-inch tart pan bottom on top of torte. Holding cardboard and springform pan bottom, turn torte over and place on rack. Remove pan bottom; peel off paper. Pour 1 1/2 cups glaze over torte. Using icing spatula, smooth glaze over top and sides (re-apply any glaze from foil if necessary). Freeze torte until glaze is set, about 10 minutes. Pour remaining 1 cup glaze over torte and smooth evenly. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup dried cranberries around top edge. Freeze until glaze is firm, about 15 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Transfer to platter. Cover with cake dome and chill. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.)

Arrange fresh mint leaves between cranberries at top edge of torte.

Cut into wedges and serve with sauce.

The Christmas Baking Begins - Fruitcake

a shameless self-promotion . . .

One of our photos from Italy has been entered in a photo contest.

Our photo is currently number 18 out of 382 photos.

You can vote by clicking here.

Remember a 10 is good!

Feel free to e-mail the link to friends and loved ones!

*smile*

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Before you run and check your calendar for fear you've slept through a month and a half, yes, it is still October! We have a tradition in our family, we gather on a weekend day near the end of October and we whip up a batch of fruitcake. Once baked, these cakes get soaked in brandy, wrapped in cloth, then waxed paper, and then sealed in foil whereupon they are hidden away in a dry, cool spot to await their unveiling - generally 8 weeks after we baked them.

This was the recipe used to make my mother's wedding cake back in 1961. My earliest memory of mom making them is 1967 when she and her friend whipped them together in the small kitchen in our apartment. For those who are counting - I was three way back then. So these cakes have been a family tradition for more than 40 years.

To be honest, I don't really like fruitcake all that much. A slice or two will do me for a year. So what do I do with the eight cakes my half of the recipe generally makes? I give them away or sell them - every year my office has a bake sale to raise money for charity. Each one of these babies goes for $ 6 which is a nice profit for the charity.

This year we decided to get an early start - 6:30 a.m. ARGH When we went to bed last night we smiled to ourselves - sure that there was no way mom would be here that early. When the alarm went at 5:45 I got up, showered, went downstairs to make some coffee and feed the cats. I figured that I could relax for a few hours before mom showed up. I was just in the middle of making some muffins for breakfast when the doorbell rang - 'good lord', I thought - she actually got up! Yes, it was her.

This recipe makes about 7 1/2 pounds of cake.

1 lb butter
2 cups white sugar
12 eggs, separated
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp nutmeg
½ tbsp ground allspice
4 cups all purpose flour
5 lb raisins (half light and half dark)
1 ½ lb citron peel
1 lb candied cherries cut in half
1 lb candied pineapple cut into chunks
½ cup brandy
1 small bottle strawberry jam
1 small bottle grape juice (about 14 oz)
½ tsp soda added to grape juice just before mixing it into the batter
1 tsp vanilla

Cut parchment paper to line pans. Grease parchment paper with butter. Line the pans.

With a mixer, cream butter and sugar.

Add the 12 egg yolks to the creamed butter and sugar.

Add spices.

In a large bowl place all of the fruit. Mix the flour and fruit together.

Add butter mixture to the flour mixture.

Mix in brandy, strawberry jam, grape juice/baking soda  mixture, and vanilla.

Gently fold in the 12 egg whites (stiffly beaten).

Fill the prepared pans with the batter.

Bake at 300 degrees until done (small cakes like we make generally take about 2 hours).

And now . . . the pics:

Paul chopping the fruit
You'll notice the debris left behind after I gave mom a treat from Palm Desert - Pistachios

Mom separating the eggs

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites

Ready to go into the oven
We put the filled cake tins on cookie sheets so it is easier to move the cakes around in the oven to ensure even browning

Out of the oven and ready to cool

Banana Cake

Shameless self-promotion . . .

One of our photos from Italy has been entered in a photo contest. It is currently 21 out of 374 photos. You can vote by clicking here.

Remember a 10 is good!

*smile*

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Political statement arriving . . . (and no, I'm not critiquing GW)

Tomorrow is election day here in Ontario. As always, it is most important to get out and vote (although if you are planning on voting for one of John Tory's conservative candidates please feel free to stay home and have a second cup of cocoa).

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This is the story of four sad and rotten bananas transformed into a work of baking genius (good lord - I am full of myself tonight aren't I?)

Anyways . . . we had four over-ripe bananas. Normally we toss them before they become a breeding ground for millions of fruit flies. For some odd reason I decided to save these to make banana bread (which I haven't made in years, suddenly it seemed necessary!) I put them in the fridge and forgot about them.

I was reminded on Monday when Paul looked at thep oor things, sitting forlornly on the glass shelf in the fridge, looked at me and barked "are you planning on storing those damn bananas for the next millennium?" I knew it was time to act.

A few weeks ago found a recipe for Banana Cake on David Lebovitz's blog. It looked like a winner - imagine adding chocolate to banana cake? YUM

I whipped it together yesterday morning and the cake, looking truly amazing, just sat there.

We had cheesecake to consume. We had carrot cake I have bought from our favourite bakery in Stratford to nibble. This wasn't high on the list. Tonight was a different story and I told Paul that some blog related research was required, as always he was thrilled to assist me!

The result - 'this is the best banana cake EVER!'

Thank you, yet again, David!

Note: I followed Lebovitz's recipe to the 'T' but had no chocolate chips so I chopped up chunks of chocolate and added it. Because the chocolate was in large and small pieces it mixed into the batter far more than chocolate chips would.

Enjoy